Jim Carrey

Far from unfamiliar with Hollywood adaptations, comic book author Steve Miles is known as the writer behind 30 Days of Night and Batman: Gotham County Line. His graphic novel, Aleister Arcane, was first considered for a screen adaptation in 2004, the same year it was published. Unfortunately, their ownership of the rights lapsed before Paramount could make anything of it, and the idea fell out of discussion. The comic retained its cult status in the years following, but wasn’t much built upon. (more…)

The year is 1995 and Tim Burton’s vision of Batman has twice pleased life-long fans of the Caped Crusader as well as bringing in some huge box office numbers. The third entry in the franchise is ready to hit and fans everywhere are a bit confused with the replacement of Michael Keaton as the man behind the bat but they are still on board with Batman Forever. After all, casting Jim Carrey as The Riddler was a master stroke and audiences are very curious as to just what sort of life Tommy Lee Jones can breathe into lawyer turned psycho madman, Two-Face and, holy sidekick, audiences are finally going to get a Batman movie with the Boy Wonder, Robin! The movie was released and, unfortunately, it was nothing like the previous two entries, and audiences didn’t love Joel Shumacher’s vision of the Dynamic Duo as much as Burton’s stories. One thing that many agreed on, however, was the fun relationship between Two-Face and The Riddler. They may have seemed like the perfect alliance on screen but if Jim Carrey is to be believed, there may have been a bit of behind-the-scenes animosity on the set between Two-Face and The Riddler during the production of Batman Forever. (more…)

Last June, actor Jim Carrey ruffled more than a few feathers when he took an active stance against the gratuitous violence in the film Kick Ass 2–the second film adaptation of the equally violent comic book series created by Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr.

As a noted anti-gun advocate, this is hardly surprising. The “feather ruffling” comes in when you consider that the film Carrey decried so vocally is a film he co-starred in, and much of the very violence he spoke out against was perpetrated by the character he portrayed.

Ohh the wonderful things you hear around the Internet water cooler on a slow news day. You never know where the next whopper that just might be true will come from. This time if involves our favorite talker to animals, Mark Wahlberg, and a classic 70’s television show The Six Million Dollar Man. (more…)

The other night after winning Best Actor in a Drama at the Emmys, reporters backstage asked Jeff Daniels about his immediate future plans, and he said he was going to Atlanta to start filming Dumb & Dumber Too. Guess he wasn’t lying.

The above picture is the first to show from the set, a backstage candid featuring co-stars Jim Carrey and Daniels, complete with bad haircuts and goofy grins, clearly relishing their reprising of the dynamic duo Lloyd and Harry nearly 20 years after the original Dumb.

And what’s that book they’re reading upside down? Why it’s Carrey’s soon to be released children’s book! Well, it looks like good reading, anyway.

Are you Bastards looking forward to the Dumb & Dumber sequel? Sound off below.

That’s the supposed lesson presented during the first Kick-Ass as Dave Lizewski is beaten to within an inch of his life and later tortured and almost murdered by a horde of mafia goons who kill Big Daddy, a former cop turned vigilante and loving, yet terrible father.

The stakes are real, there are consequences to playing make-pretend superheroes — this is the message, but then all of that is undercut when Dave aids Big Daddy’s daughter, Hit Girl, in her quest for revenge. In the end, the pair soars high above New York City, on their way toward a “normal” life after killing the bad guy with a bazooka.

It’s an ending that is basted in cliche, but it fits as a cap to a fun and empty collection of over the top action scenes that are tied together by the thin thread of a paint by numbers script.

Kick-Ass didn’t light the world on fire with its box office receipts, bringing in just $48 million at the US box office and about the same through international markets, but it was well received and studios seemingly love to be in the comic book movie business, hence, a sequel was born.

[EDITORS NOTE: This story was written by Nerd Bastards newbie Brent Cook, who is earning his publishing wings.]

So, a few months back, Jim Carrey took to Twitter to say that he “could not support the level of violence” in Kick-Ass 2, which was filmed prior to the Sandy Hook Tragedy. Since his sudden change of heart, Carrey’sKick-Ass 2co-stars (namely John Leguizamo and Chloë Moretz) have defended the movie against Carrey’s statements, and now, we have writer/director Jeff Wadlow giving his take on the situation.

Here’s my take on it; he is entitled to have his own opinion, and he’s entitled to change his opinion. Ultimately, I really believe his performance speaks for itself

For the past few months, we’ve been seeing trailers, in some form or another, for the follow up to 2010’s Kick-Ass, titled Kick-Ass 2, naturally. I, like most people, have been pretty psyched to see what Kick-Ass and Hit-Girl have been up to, as well as how the “super group,” Justice Forever, comes to be. Well, I have good news! The Kick-Ass 2 reviews are in, and they’re… alright.

The overall consensus throughout each review is that the film doesn’t quite top its predecessor, despite being an enjoyable follow up. Digital Spy made the statement that “[f]ocusing on a movie’s strengths can be tough for any sequel that fails to live up to the expectation and hype,” characterizing the film as “diverting, if not fulfilling.” Empire Online claim more of the same, calling Kick-Ass 2 a “more modest success” in regards to the first film, but praised the character of “The Mother Fucker” as “a pleasant surprise.“Meanwhile, Flickering Myth was a bit more positive with their review, stating:

Kick-Ass 2 is not, by any stretch of the imagination, your average superhero movie. The best thing about this movie is that is doesn’t have an ego. It is so utterly self-deprecating and self-aware that it’s hard not to love it… Meanwhile, in its simplicity it maintains a level of closeness with its audience that can’t be had with other, more fantastical superhero movies – and that for me is Kick-Ass 2’s greatest triumph.

which is one of the things most people enjoyed about the first film.

There has also been praise for the performances by stars Jim Carrey, Chloë Moretz, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse. Carrey, who’s shunned the movie for its emphasis on violence and firearms, is said to be “perfect in his role” of Colonel Stars and Stripes, while Moretz and Mintz-Plasse are said to have taken advantage of the opportunity to play deeper, more defined versions of their reprised roles. Although Aaron Taylor-Johnson has also been said to put on a decent performance in the role of the title character, Sci Fi Now reports the performance may have been bogged down by being “saddled with a Peter Parker journey that starts to drag as the film goes on.”

The movie was quite possibly summed up best in Hey U Guys‘ review, when they made the comment:

Though riddled with issues – and not quite as ingenious as the first – it makes for incredibly fun viewing, and as such ensures that it doesn’t always have to be taken at face value.

While I was hoping for something even better than the first, I may have just gotten my own hopes a bit too high, and I don’t think it would be a mistake to check it out. As a huge Chloë Moretz and Jim Carrey fan, as well as a fan of the first film and over-the-top violence, I think this movie has enough going for it to force an end to my Twin Peaks marathon, so that I can get off my lazy ass and go be entertained by Kick-Ass 2 when it comes out on the 16th.

EDITORS NOTE: This story was written by NB newbie Brent Cook, who is earning his publishing wings.

About a month and a half ago Jim Carrey shocked us all with some stirring comments about his disapproval of the excessive violence in Kick-Ass 2. A movie he’s in and one in where he participates in quite a bit of said violence. It was shocking only because, one, anyone’s who read the comics or seen the first Kick-Ass would say, “No duh, the over-the-top violence is sort of its schtick,” and two, how did Carrey not come to this conclusion earlier? Like when he was filming.

I can forgive him the change of heart, but slamming the film both you and your fellow co-stars and crew worked so very hard on, that’s kind of low. And apparently, Chloe Moretz kind of thinks so, too. She recently responded to Carrey’s comments with a few of her own,

It’s a movie. If you are going to believe and be affected by an action film, you shouldn’t go to see Pocahontas because you are going to think you are a Disney princess.

If you are that easily swayed, you might see ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ and think you are a serial killer. It’s a movie and it’s fake, and I’ve known that since I was a kid … I don’t want to run around trying to kill people and cuss. If anything, these movies teach you what not to do.

It’s that same old argument of violence in the media being what spurs real life acts of violence. And it’s bullshit. I mean, hell, you want to talk about excessive violence? Check out out Kick-Ass 2, the comic, after seeing the movie and you’ll see what was considered too brutal for the screen. I wonder what Carrey’s comments would have been were the now infamous, though removed from the film, scenes of rape and extreme animal cruelty still included? Author Mark Millar is a twisted individual, but I don’t believe anyone who’d consider acting on truly evil impulses needs a comic, movie, or video game to inspire them.

Moretz did add, “Each their own,” in response to Carrey’s comments, so hopefully there is no ill will between the co-stars.

What are your thoughts of violence in the movies? Is the violence of Kick-Ass too extreme? Isn’t it only a movie, and therefor, easily distinguishable from real life?

With Jeff Wadlow‘s Kick-Ass 2 hitting theaters in just under a month, Universal has released four new TV spots to remind people just how there they are. And and all the othersare all there, that’s for sure.

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